The Del Amitri Concert, 2nd November 1997
by Richard Black

Glasgow Barrowlands -

Last night’s gig by Del Amitri was one of the finest I have seen them perform. From start to finish, the show just oozed class. And, dare I say it, professionalism? Yes, on their first visit to Glasgow in nearly a year (you may remember they skipped Scotland on the last tour) the boys really pulled out the stops and put on a great show. We had old songs, including Nothing Ever Happens (not heard in the Barras for at least 3 years!). We had new songs (Paper Thin and Drowned on Dry Land made appearances, as well as a decent proportion of new album stuff).We had B-SIDES! In the Frame opened one of the encores, and who cares whether its a happy or sad song - its a great song which is all that matters! And we had covers. A Ramones song called Boyfriend, and a song by Slim ?? from the Replacements called Girlfriend (maybe the titles are wrong, but it was something like that) which they played back to back just before the end.

But for me the biggest thrill of the night was the way the band sounded. Outstanding. The vocals came over crisp and clear, and the way Chris and Mark seem to have affected some of the older songs is immense. Always The Last To Know sounded so fresh it could have been written yesterday. And the backing vocals, always something of a disappointment in the past, were 100% spot on.

As I’ve said before, the whole thing just smacked of a newfound professionalism, which is no bad thing. Having said that, there were a couple of the sort of comedic moments which we have grown to love over the years. Andy calling Chris over, like he wanted to tell him something, then smacking him over the head with a bottle. Justin running a competition to give away a Sydney Devine (legendary [AWFUL] Scottish country singer) album, where the question was "What is the first song on side B? First person to throw a piece of paper onto the stage with the correct answer wins". No one even tried. But the most bizarre episode of the evening had to be when my mate came back from the toilets and told us he’d just been talking to Andy, who then proceeded to walk from the toilet at the back of the hall, through the crowd to the stage door completely unnoticed! Priceless.

So it seems the fans prayers have been answered. Calls for live b-sides, better backing vocals and new arrangements have been answered. Now if only we could get them to play for more than an hour and 45 minutes............